After 31 years, teacher Mrs. Baird still lives for those 'a-ha moments'

By Tiffany Lee-YoungrenSeptember 4, 2005

In the 31 years she's been a teacher at Mira Mesa's Mason Elementary School, Barbara Baird has seen students come and go, educational philosophies ebb and flow. But there's one thing that hasn't changed since Baird entered her first classroom: She still gets a thrill when she sees that special spark in the eyes of a student who finally gets it.

HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune

"I think I knew I loved teaching from the first day," says Barbara Baird, a longtime teacher at Mason Elementary.

"There are so many a-ha moments when all of a sudden the lightbulb goes on," Baird said during an interview at her favorite morning coffee spot on Mira Mesa Boulevard. "You look in their eyes, and it's like, 'They understand!'"

"I think I knew I loved teaching from the first day," said Baird, 55, of Poway. "When we first moved to San Diego, my husband and I thought I would do something else. I worked in a bank for four or five months, and I think I hated every hour of every day I worked there. But I had done some (substitute teaching) in Garden Grove, and I knew I loved it.

"You have to love the children or you really wouldn't love teaching. I have all kinds of funny stories I'm always telling my family. This little boy, on the first day of school, he comes to me and he says, 'Mrs. Baird, I just want you to know, I don't speak cursive.' I said, 'You know what? You're at the right place because we don't speak it, either.'"

But that may just be the only language that isn't being spoken at Mason Elementary. Growing Asian-and Mexican-American populations have changed the socioeconomic landscape of Mira Mesa, as have the prevalence of military families from nearby Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

"Over the years it's become a much more ethnically diverse population, and that has been really a wonderful change," she said. "If you come to our campus at the end of the school day, you see grandmas and grandpas coming to pick up their children and different languages being spoken. I think it has a nice feel. We are getting a lot of English learners, and so that's a challenge we're trying to meet right now: how to best address those children."

How to best address the needs of all children is something the state has grappled with throughout former San Diego Unified School Board Superintendent Alan Bersin's lengthy career. Most recently, Bersin's "Blueprint for Student Success" spurred a didactic shift from weeks-long educational projects to rigorous daily instruction in math and reading.

"We have to give a lot of time and thought to preparing for (state) testing now, more than we did throughout the years," Baird said. "There always has been testing, but I think the emphasis and importance of what your scores are for your school have really changed. We have to spend three hours per day on reading and an hour and a half to math. That gives us little time for the subjects kids enjoy, like art, social studies, science and music. It's tough to get those in."

Baird considers the testing standards an opportunity. Last year, after finding inspiration in a training program called "Hands-on Equations" at the National Math Conference, Baird decided to start teaching algebra. To third-graders.

"It was so exciting. Every day, I made the children take their papers home and have them signed because they were so excited that they were actually learning algebra. Last year, I'd say teaching math was probably what I enjoyed the most." Even if it meant putting in more hours. Lots more hours.

"There has been another big change, and it really is in the amount of time teachers spend working," she said. "When I started teaching, I put in a lot of time, but I was also able to have a family. I was able to be an effective teacher and still put in time with my own sons. Nowadays, you'd think with 31 years' experience, I'd be able to get in and out of school much quicker, but I put in at least 50 hours a week at school. I really feel fortunate that I don't have a family of my own at this time because the job has gotten harder, and I don't know that we've necessarily gotten better at it."

It's days like Sept. 11, Baird says, that really test her mettle as a teacher and as a human being.

"That was a very significant day because we have so many children that live on base, and by the end of the day the base had been closed down. I did not turn on the TV that day, but we talked about it and we did a creative writing piece and art that went with it. It was probably one of the most traumatic days in teaching, a day when you wanted to turn on the TV and watch, and yet you knew you couldn't because you didn't want the children upset."

Developing an emotional bond with her children is something that seems to come naturally to Baird, who has kept in contact with many of her former students as they begin families of their own.

"I have kids that come back all the time, and they say, 'I remember when we did such and such it was so much fun.' I think the cool thing about teaching 31 years in the same school is that you get to know the families. Your kids will come back and see you and let you know what's happening in their lives, good things and bad things.

"My second year of teaching I had a little boy whose family had just come from Cuba. I had him twice in kindergarten, then again in first grade and then I later had him in fifth grade. You're not supposed to have favorites, but anyone that you've had four times in your elementary career has to be your all-time favorite. He's in his 30s now, and his family still lives across from school. His older sister would come in and help out in the classroom during the summer and went on to become a teacher. In June she called and said, 'I just wanted to let you know I'm a candidate for county Teacher of the Year.'In her application, she said she had started thinking about teaching while in my classroom. That was very rewarding.

"I have a lot of friends who have retired, and when I locked my door on the last day in July, I went in and talked to my principal and I said, 'If this was my last day of teaching, I don't think I'd be able to make it out to my car. I'd be so sad.'"

But when Baird, who has taught all grade levels at Mason except for second grade, finally does retire, it will be the children and their knack for saying just the right thing that she'll remember most.

"Last year I was walking with my class to lunch, and a girl from another third-grade class ran up to me and said, 'Mrs. Baird, do you think you'll ever be smart enough to teach fourth grade so I can be in your classroom?' Those stories are just so special. I love it because kids do say wonderful things. That was such a compliment to me.

"I think of all the things I do, teaching is what I do best. I have many more good days than bad days, and they're all interesting days. You can't be bored with your job because no day is ever the same. You can't have a more rewarding job. OK, financially you could have a more rewarding job, but I can't think of a better job, and I'm so pleased that's what I chose to do."